


Sing Me a Rainbow, Steal Me a Dream

by anthrop



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Chatlogs, Gen, Genocide, Grimdark, Grimdark!John, Horrorterrors - Freeform, I just have this fascination with the horrorterrors being much more hands on whoops, Lovecraftian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-22
Updated: 2012-06-22
Packaged: 2017-11-08 07:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/440557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthrop/pseuds/anthrop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They asked for your help. They were dying out in the vastness of the Outer Ring, blinking out in cold bursts of starlight. You're just eager to help--what's so wrong with that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sing Me a Rainbow, Steal Me a Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the 30 days of drabbles challenge, so please do forgive any slight grammatical errors. I'm going for speed, not necessarily nitpickiness. As for the subject of this fic: I love Lovecraftian horror. I love grimdarkness. I love grimdark!John. What more is there to say?
> 
> Title is from [this song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwhxjP63ysk).

They took you. Changed you, made you strong and fierce and unafraid. They peeled you open and poured you out, filled you brimming with Their secrets.

GG: john!!!  
GG: you are being so obnoxious! snap out of it!!

They smothered you with Their gifts until you didn't need to breathe anymore. They gave you everything and more, and then They asked for your help.  
How could you possibly walk away from Them?

TG: what the actual fuck do you think youre doing  
TG: this isnt funny egbert seriously man havent you learned anything from rose  
TG: grimdorkness  
TG: not even once

You are very happy.

TT: John, this is foolishness.  
TT: I know what you're thinking as I once thought the same. From personal experience, this will only end with a sword through the torso.  
TT: You may be completely off the deep end, John, but I know you haven't forgotten how unpleasant steel through vital organs can be.

Your best friends didn't understand, not even Rose, and she had had trusted Them first.

TT: Yes, and look where my trust got me.

They asked for your help. They were dying out in the vastness of the Outer Ring, blinking out in cold bursts of starlight. You're just eager to help--what's so wrong with that?

TG: are you shitting me  
TG: you cant honestly think drilling lowas full of more holes than a swiss cheese factory was a good idea  
TG: just in case you did newsflash it wasnt

Sure, you felt bad for all the salamanders, but it had to be done. It was the only way you could drain the dark oceans and paint the summoning sigils.

GG: oh my god john i cant believe you did that :C  
GG: stop john please stop! this is horrible!

TG: jesus christ you just opened that salamander up like a tube of pillsbury biscuits pop there goes the little guys bubbling blowing head rolling around on the floor  
TG: poked the doughboy right in the belly button oops now his insides are his outsides  
TG: fuck

TT: John.  
TT: That  
TT: That was awful.  
TT: I'm genuinely hesitant to find out what you plan to do with those blood-painted sigils.

Well how else were you going to summon Mnomquah, Lord of the Black Lake???

TG: rose what the fuck am i looking at here  
TT: It appears to be a species of giant, eyeless axolotl, bearing a crown of prehensile tentilla.  
TG: so he drained his entire planets goddamn oceans slaughtered thousands of consorts and drew moonspeak with their blood  
TG: to summon a giant salamander  
TT: Yes.  
TG: what the fuck for  
TT: If I knew don't you think I would have done something about it?  
GG: is it just me or is it getting bigger?

TG: hey whoa there john dont go through that gate havent you had enough genocidal fun today  
TG: shit

You always liked Rose's planet. It was so much brighter than yours, with plenty of clean drinking water, adorable little pink turtle consorts and lots of interesting side quests.  
Too bad that all had to go!

GG: rose make him stop!!!  
GG: i cant teleport to lolar and he just wont stop!!! oh god D:  
TT: Believe me, if I could I would.  
TT: I... I think I'm going to be sick.  
TG: wow i didnt need to know what i look like without a face let me tell you  
TG: okay yeah not gonna try warping to lolar thats enough dead daves for a while i think

Through the sweet, sweet science of wind convergence and evaporation, you dried out Rose's rainbow planet and filled the skies with black, roiling clouds. On the sandy white plains a mile below sea level, you painted the sigils to summon the Dweller in the Gulf, Eidolon the Blind.

TT: While I appreciate your sudden interest in things both grim, dark and zoologically dubious, what you are doing here is not going to end well for anyone, least of all yourself.  
TT: I don't know if anyone ever told you this, John, but genocide is never the answer.  
TT: Furthermore, Lovecraft's characters had a noticeable tendency to go mad and kill themselves, or go mad and be killed by the very Being they had attempted to control.  
TT: I expect it's very much the same in practice.

TG: is that a giant black turtle im looking at here  
GG: i think its a tortoise actually  
TG: its got two tails with suckers on the ends  
TG: please dont tell me those are mouths  
GG: :(  
GG: shit hes on the move again!  
TG: rose got a plan of action here yet hes gonna go to lohac next and tbh i dont wanna be on the blunt end of zillyhoo again  
TG: fucker hurts something fierce  
TT: Yes.  
TG: yes what you got a way to save my ass  
TT: Yes.  
TT: Run.

You had really hoped Dave was going to help you after LOWAS and LOLAR. It was a lot more exhausting summoning ancient gods than you'd thought it would be! But instead of greeting you with his usual coolkid chin jerk or a fist bump, he absconded through the nearest Gate like a total chump!  
Okay yeah, you were kind of mad about that. You didn't _mean_ to take it out on LOHAC, not really.

GG: ...  
TG: ...  
TT: ...  
TG: he just  
TG: drilled lohac in half  
TG: like  
TG: there goes the northern hemisphere  
TG: pchooo  
TT: He shattered the Beat Mesa.  
TG: ill never see my apartment again  
TG: had so many ill jams i was gonna finish  
TG: fuck i had some really cool pictures i was gonna develop oh well i guess that aint happening now  
TG: wait what  
GG: oh nooo :(  
GG: that was our only shot at resetting the game!  
TG: fuck whats he doing now  
TT: No doubt summoning another horrorterror.  
GG: but why???  
GG: what are they trying to accomplish by destroying all our planets like this?  
TT: I wish I knew.  
GG: there it is!  
TG: where  
GG: crawling onto whats left of the mesa  
TG: ...is that a crocodile like a proper one not a nakky one  
TT: Yes.  
TT: It also look about seventy feet long and still growing.  
TG: oh yeah and of course its got a tentabeard wouldnt be sufficiently lovecraftian without one of those  
TG: motherfucker  
GG: oh no my planet is next isnt it :(

After Dythalla, Lord of Lizards, had shaken the magma from his tentacles and uttered the Word, you took the Gate to LOFAF and immediately ran into Jack.  
He was a lot easier to deal with this round.

GG: :O  
TT: Well.  
TT: I don't think we'll be worrying about Jack anymore.  
TG: no shit john just smashed his devilbeast face to a creamy pulp with one swing of his hammer  
GG: we have to help him guys!  
TG: be my guest harley after you  
TT: Don't listen to him, Jade. Stay where you are.  
GG: but  
TT: Trust me. In the state he's in I doubt he'll stay his hand against anything or anyone who gets in his way.  
GG: i know but i cant just sit here anymore! its torture!!  
TT: I understand. Really, I do.  
TT: But he hasn't taken well to horrorterror influences. I was able to calm myself enough to attempt pleasant conversation with John, even if I only succeeded in speaking eldritch gibberish. John, on the other hand, is well and truly off the deep end.  
TG: so what no plan then accept stay outta super grimsaiyan johns way until he tires out  
TT: Yes.  
TG: that is a terrible plan and you should feel terrible for thinking of it  
TT: If you have something better in my mind, please, do share with the rest of the class.  
GG: ssssh!!  
GG: johns flying to my quest bed  
GG: what do you think hes going to do?

After Mnomquah, Eidolon and Dythalla, you were glad to discover that summoning Gol-goroth, the Forgotten God, God of the Black Stone, was cake in comparison. All you had to do was swing Zillyhoo just right and bring Jade's Quest Bed crashing down and out he oozed. He rose out of the rubble and stretched his endless wings, and _grew_.  
When his scaly, toad-like head blocked out Skaia's light you knew it was time to move on. It was time to hit the Battleground.

TG: ok so the battoad didnt slow him down at all what now lalonde  
TG: hes heading for skaia  
TG: fyi thats where we are just in case you forgot  
TG: hello  
TG: rose you there  
TG: jade get your spectagoogles on find out whats up with her for me  
TG: ...  
TG: jade  
TG: fuck  
TT: Pardon our absence. I was preoccupied and asked Jade to keep an eye on me.  
GG: wow rose are you ok???  
GG: that looked really uncomfortable from my end  
TT: I'll be fine, Jade. I'm just a little winded.  
TG: preoccupied  
TG: johns got his brain eaten by space squid and just finished destroying four planets and summoning i dont even know and you decided to what paint your toenails  
TG: your priorities are seriously out of whack  
TT: For your information, Strider, I was communing with Oglogoth, The Deep One.  
TG: you did what now  
TG: i thought we were trying to AVOID more horrorterrors not invite a few more in  
TT: Sometimes it's necessary to fight fire with fire.  
TT: Or space squid with space squid, as the case may be.  
TG: thats sounds like a one-way ticket to fuckedville but i guess since were there already we cant get much more fucked  
TG: so what did ogler have to say  
TT: Not much, which is probably for the best.  
GG: it said that the noble circle was sick of being exterminated so they decided to take matters into their own  
GG: um  
GG: tentacles? :/  
TG: and so what johns their puppet  
TT: Not quite.  
TG: then what  
TT: He's their general.

They took you in their chilly black arms and whispered with innumerable mouths Their deepest secrets and darkest fears, and what Gods fear is enough to drive mortal men mad. But you are a god yourself now, so you just grit your teeth and listened  
and listened  
and listened  
until you understood what They wanted of you. You swallowed Their gifts, exhaled your weaknesses, and you learned what it meant to sing under alien stars. You learned the Words and the Stratagems and the Arrays, you learned to speak Their many tongues and you have learned what it will take to break the game. Rose only scratched the surface with her _shruggoth_ s and her smoky gray skin.  
You?  
You're going to build an _army_ , and you will reduce the universe to glittering space dust and darkness if that's what it takes to save your friends.


End file.
